Gurkovska Cove (Bulgarian: залив Гурковска, ‘Zaliv Gurkovska’ \'za-liv 'gur-kov-ska\) is the 3 km wide cove indenting for 2.5 km the east extremity of Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. It is entered southwest of Boyadzhiev Point and northeast of Walker Point. Its southwest side is occupied by Slavyanka Beach. The feature was formed as a result of the retreat of The Stadium (a glacier feeding the cove's head) in the first decade of 21st century.
The cove is named after Yuliya Gurkovska (1945–2001), participant in the Second Bulgarian Antarctic Expedition 1993/94 (while serving as chief of staff of the Bulgarian President Zhelyu Zhelev at that time[1]), for her support for the Bulgarian Antarctic programme. Gurkovska was an experienced explorer who sailed several times together with her husband Doncho Papazov in the course of a plankton research programme carried out onboard various lifeboats in the Black Sea, the Atlantic and the Pacific. Eventually, accompanied by their daughter Yana (then 6 years old), they circumnavigated the world in the yacht Tivia in 1979–1981.[2]
Gurkovska Cove is centred at -61.1278°N -54.7°W. British mapping of the area in 1822,1972 and 2009.